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Vague-Blogging: Explained

I did the thing. I dealt with the Really Messy and Difficult Thing I vague-blogged about a little while ago. I can’t get too much into it, but it was a Work Thing, one that has been fermenting and getting consistently worse for about 18 months and was slowly sucking my soul.

For many years I had a fantastic, supportive, demanding, inspiring supervisor. She left the company last spring, and her replacement…well…despite being the best candidate in the pool of applicants, the feet just could not fill the shoes my old boss carefully and thoughtfully left in her office. Initial feelings of “Oh, well, New Boss is new…give it some time, things will get better…” Things never got better.

[Redact. Redact. Redact.]

I have been tentatively looking for a job in Arizona since last fall, more in earnest the last few months. However, after applying to at least 3 dozen jobs I still hadn’t got a single call for an interview.

I was discouraged and I wrote a vague blog post about wanting to change everything in my life (but really, I only meant I wanted to change the one really distressing part of my life).

Literally, just a few hours after publishing that rant, the Arizona equivalent of my Utah state department called completely out of the blue, they had an opening, and they wanted me, and could I please come in for an interview? Oh, and also send them a resume? And fill out an application? (This is a case for networking, people! There is no other way to have this kind of head-hunted experience!) Two days later I interviewed, and a few hours after that I had a job offer with a title increase and a solid starting platform for salary/benefit negotiations.

Today is my first day as a Director. I am no longer a remote employee 700 miles from my colleagues, I no longer have a 15-foot commute and working in fuzzy slippers is not part of my government employee dress code. I have BOATLOADS to learn–people, programs, processes–but I am looking forward to the challenge. I have a beautiful view, a wall of windows in my office, and will be a downtown employee once again. Granted, this time “downtown” is a 30 miles (each way) commute with rush hour traffic, but even that will not be too terrible. I can drive 700 miles from Phoenix to Salt Lake without stopping, 45 minutes is nothing.

I will forever miss my fantastic colleagues and co-workers from my Salt Lake City office. I am already missing the idea of going back several times a year for visits and work meetings and evenings or weekends spent with family, friends, and my mountains.

First day was great!! I am pretty familiar with most aspects of this industry, so moving states but staying in the same industry was MUCH easier that the tremendous learning curve I had when coming into the industry 6 years ago. Woot!!

My work-place office needs a LOT of work…and I probably have a lot less freedom to switch things up, but I’ve already done quite a bit and while it’s no equivalent to my glorious home office, it’s going to be alright. 🙂